Digital = Anthropology & Carpentry

Anthropology is one of the most useful subjects to read when trying to form, motivate and move a crowd of people. You learn about the importance of ritual and routine. Tribes now tend to be online, nothing new with that statement. Yet, as I spend most of my days creating and reinforcing that ritual and routine you easily get lost in the creation of it.

Creating a community takes a lot of time and patience. As you don’t see an instant product at the end of the day you can easily get lost in the creation which is not good. But as Lance Ulanoff sees it, one of the “5 Tech Trends to Watch in 2012” is Social/Digital Exhaustion. I accept that his angle was the over saturation of the user but as a social/digital practitioner I also feel it acutely. All doom? Not at all. I would not be brash enough to predict a trend but I will always let common sense and the lessons of Anthropology dictate me.

I took a carpentry course to remind me how to feel progress. To remind me how to feel achievement. The goal is to feel that type of craftsmanship with community creation and engagement. I made a table and it felt fantastic! It’s no surprise that there is a rise in popularity of people taking courses like workshop in San Francisco that got featured in Monocle. I believe that to avoid that “exhaustion” we need to bring the tactile back. Whatever your business that needs to happen. A happy birthday post on my Facebook wall will never be a substitute for a birthday card with a handwritten note because yes it’s tactile but most importantly it took time, something we need to understand the value of more.